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Cisco to Acquire Accedian, Enhancing Service Assurance Cisco has announced its plan to acquire Accedian, a Canadian network optimization specialist, in order to improve its service assurance offerings and enhance the Cisco Networking Cloud. Accedian, known for its SaaS-first service assurance platform, has extensive experience in complex networks and will bring valuable capabilities to Cisco. The CEO of Accedian emphasized the importance of performance visibility and its role in automation, telco cloud environments, and 5G services. Cisco’s General Manager praised Accedian’s expertise and collaboration, and the acquisition is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of Cisco’s FY 2024, with potential benefits for Cisco’s service assurance portfolio and networking solutions. Read the full article BT and British Army Partner for Wide-Scale Wi-Fi Deployment BT and the British Army have entered into a multi-million-pound agreement to deploy managed Wi-Fi services, called MOD Wi-Fi, across 162 sites in the UK. The…

A historic milestone for the Canadian telecommunications sector was realized as Rogers Communications Inc. announced it had successfully concluded its merger with Shaw Communications Inc. The merger unites two famous Canadian companies that have been connecting Canadians for over five decades. The merger creates a coast-to-coast nationwide company which has fiber-powered internet that is accessible to nearly 70% of Canadian households. The newly combined company plans to bundle more products and services, including internet, television, phone, smart home monitoring, wireless services, credit card offers and sports and media content. In the next five years, the company intends to spend billions of dollars to offer fast, reliable networks in additional towns across Western Canada. Rogers will invest $1 billion in the four Western provinces to link rural, remote and Indigenous communities, as well as unserved distant routes. The business also intends to invest $2.5 billion to expand and strengthen…

Canada’s merger court has ruled in favor of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications in a major antitrust case, removing one of the final barriers to the merger of two of the country’s largest telecommunications companies. The decision follows a month-long hearing that included evidence from 45 witnesses and thousands of pages of documentation.   The merger of Rogers and Shaw has been in the works for almost two years and was always expected to face scrutiny from competition authorities. One key concern was the consolidation of the Canadian mobile sector through Rogers’ acquisition of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile. To address this, the companies pledged to sell Freedom Mobile to the smaller mobile network operator, Videotron.   After considering this concession, the Canadian Competition Tribunal ruled that the acquisition could proceed, provided that Shaw first completes the disposition of Freedom Mobile. The Competition Bureau had requested that the tribunal block the merger…

BT, the UK’s largest telecommunications company, has announced plans to restructure its business by consolidating its Global and Enterprise divisions into a single unit called BT Business. The aim of this move is to cut costs and improve the performance of underperforming businesses.    As part of this restructuring, BT will eliminate various product portfolios and management and support positions, with the goal of saving £100 million by 2025. The combination of the two divisions is expected to increase simplicity by eliminating unnecessary duplication and allowing the company to offer a single service to both corporate and public sector clients.   This restructuring comes after the company announced in April that it would rebrand all of its consumer operations as EE, with BT becoming the flagship brand for its corporate units. In addition, the enterprise division has experienced a series of poor quarters, with a 23% drop in the first…

A multibillion-dollar merger between Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications Inc., two of the biggest telecommunications businesses in Canada, was officially rejected by the federal industry minister.   “Today, I officially denied that request. My decision formally closes that chapter of the original proposed transaction,” said Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.   The US$19 billion merger between the two businesses was revealed in March, but it was met with opposition because it may limit consumer choice and drive up mobile costs. Shaw’s wireless spectrum licenses would have been completely transferred to Rogers as a result of the acquisition.   Shaw’s ownership of Freedom Mobile has been largely viewed as the biggest impediment to the deal’s ratification. Videotron, located in Montreal, agreed to purchase it for $2.1 billion earlier this year. Champagne stated that he wanted two specific commitments before approving the Videotron merger. Videotron would have to agree to maintain the…

Inmarsat, a major supplier of international mobile satellite communications services, and Viasat, a worldwide communications company, have announced that the Australian Government’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has stated that it has no concerns about the intended merger of the two companies.   The proposed deal has already received numerous important regulatory approvals, most notably from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and from the UK Government under the National Security and Investment Act. The most recent permission for the deal is the FIRB’s clearance of Viasat’s proposed acquisition of Inmarsat under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act of 1975. Australia is a large market where the two businesses have substantial consumer and commercial ties.   Inmarsat and Viasat announced that they will merge their two businesses to become a new global communications powerhouse in November 2021. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second…

Vodafone and CK Hutchison are in negotiations to merge their companies in the United Kingdom in order to establish a market-leading mobile network that may advance the roll-out of 5G services and boost Internet accessibility.   Combining Vodafone UK with Hutchison’s Three, Britain’s third and fourth largest networks, would result in a company with around 27 million mobile subscribers. Vodafone stated that CK Hutchison would hold 49% of the business and Vodafone would own 51%, an arrangement that would be accomplished by altering debt ownership rather than by trading cash. Reports of a possible partnership between the two companies surfaced earlier this year.   The global corporation CK Hutchison stated that no legally binding agreement for such a merger has been entered into, but the proposed acquisition is expected to require that both businesses would integrate their UK companies. CK Hutchison further said that there is no guarantee that any…

Following an internal reorganization, Telecom Italia (TIM) has signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the state investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to begin talks on a possible merger of its fixed network with the state-backed company Open Fiber. This initiative is aimed at reviving a long-standing goal to establish a single fiber network company in Italy.   The notion of combining the networks of the two businesses to create a single national broadband network for Italy has been discussed for at least two years. The government-owned CDP, which has a 60% investment in Open Fiber and a 10% stake in TIM, has long advocated for such an alliance . The government has determined that establishing a unified network will allow for a faster rollout of fiber technology, avoiding an overbuild and maximizing the use of European recovery funding.   The decision comes as TIM CEO Pietro Labriola pushes…